Sanity vs Payload
Our score, every feature we track, pricing plans, hosting and AI, side by side.
At a glance
The facts from each platform's profile, side by side.
| Metric | Sanity | Payload |
|---|---|---|
| Our score | 4.6 | 4.3 |
| Pricing | Free up to 20 seats · Growth $15 per seat/mo | Free open source (MIT) · paid enterprise options |
| AI | AI Assist instructions on fields, translation and agent APIs over the Content Lake | No first-party AI suite; easy to wire your own models through hooks |
| Hosting | SaaS | SaaS or self-hosted |
| Source code | Open source,Closed source | Open source |
| Created | 2017 | 2021 |
| Best for | Developer-led teams that want to shape the editing experience in code | TypeScript and Next.js teams that want the CMS in the same codebase |
| AI features | AI Assist instructions on fields, translation and agent APIs over the Content Lake | No first-party AI suite; easy to wire your own models through hooks |
Features
How each platform offers a feature: free, in the cheapest paid plan, on a higher plan, or enterprise only. Open a feature to compare it across every platform.
Sanity
- AI content tools Tiered AI Assist, plus APIs to build your own content agents
- AI translation Tiered Document and field-level translation
- Content modeling Free Schemas and Studio defined in TypeScript
- GraphQL API Free Alongside GROQ
- Headless API Free Content Lake with GROQ queries and a CDN
- Real-time collaboration Free Real-time editing with fine-grained document history
- Scheduled publishing Tiered Content Releases
- Visual editing Free Presentation tool; needs extra setup
Payload
- Content modeling Free Config-as-code collections and globals
- Drafts and versioning Free Versions and drafts
- Framework integrations Free Runs natively inside a Next.js app
- GraphQL API Free Generated from your config
- Headless API Free Local API and REST
- Live preview Free Preview inside the admin panel, with a Lexical rich-text editor
- Localization Free Built in
- Roles and permissions Free Access control and hooks defined in code
Pricing
Every plan, cheapest first, and what the bill is counted by. Open a profile for what each plan includes.
Sanity
- FreeFree Free Individuals experimenting or shipping smaller projects
- GrowthPer seat $15per seat / month Teams with growing projects and more collaboration
- EnterpriseCustom quote Custom Organizations with complex security and support needs
Prices checked Vendor pricing page
Payload
- Free (open source)Free Free Developers who host Payload themselves
- EnterpriseCustom quote Custom Large teams needing support and enterprise features
Prices checked Vendor pricing page
Strengths and watch-outs
From our review of each platform.
Sanity
Strengths
- Schemas and Studio defined in TypeScript, versioned with your app.
- Real-time collaboration and fine-grained document history.
- GROQ and GraphQL queries, plus a strong CDN.
- AI Assist and APIs that let you build your own content agents.
Watch out for
- Needs developers to set up and evolve the Studio.
- Per-seat and usage costs grow with large editorial teams.
- Visual editing requires extra setup with the Presentation tool.
Payload
Strengths
- Fully typed config and generated types end to end.
- Runs inside Next.js; one deploy for site and CMS.
- Flexible hooks and access control in code.
- MIT-licensed open source.
Watch out for
- Built for developers; non-technical teams need a dev partner.
- No built-in AI suite.
- Smaller ecosystem than Strapi or Contentful.
More comparisons
Everything on this page comes from our profiles of the two platforms, checked against each vendor's own documentation and pricing pages. Vendors change plans often: confirm prices on their site before you buy.